BROTHERS IN ARMS
- The Gunns of World War One
John and George Gunn served together in the Nottinghamshire sides before WWI but when war came, although they both served their country, their paths went in different directions.
John, the elder brother, was almost 40 when he enlisted in May 1916 and 41 when he was mobilised (started service) a year later. He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery (the same unit as erstwhile team-mate Ted Alletson) but only served in the UK. For most of the time he was at Catterick Camp but he was also at Clipstone Camp.
John William Gunn, John’s eldest son, had volunteered in 1914 at the outbreak of the War but his father and uncle, perhaps because of their ages – or that soon disproved optimism that it would be ‘over by Christmas’ – sat out the first winter of the conflict.
In May 1915, a year ahead of his brother, George enlisted for the Army Service Corps. At that time, participation was still voluntary (the slaughter that required conscription had already started) so George did not have to go to War – though a year later (when John signed on) he would have been eligible for call-up.
He had been taken ill on a cricket tour of New Zealand more than a decade earlier and, although initially passed fit, after ten months in France (April 1916 to January 1917) he was invalided out because he could no longer ‘fulfil Army physical requirements’. Whether this was a recurrence of the illness from his touring days or something else, the records do not show.
Whatever the reason, George was home and, with county cricket discontinued for the duration, he joined the ranks of professional cricketers plying their trade in the Bradford League. He played, with some distinction, for Undercliffe CC and would have come up against such luminaries as Sydney Barnes and Jack Hobbs who were also not fit enough for war service but playing league cricket.
Quite why such accomplished sportsmen should fall short of the Army’s physical tests – especially when men were so desperately needed at the front – is not clear.
John did not get to France but nonetheless had an unhappy War – one story in The Trent Bridge Battery reports that when due to return to barracks after home leave, ‘he simply burst into tears’.
Some of that may have been anxiety about his two sons who were both serving overseas, Cyril, John’s second son, having joined John William in enlisting.
Cyril, serving in the Cycle Corps, was wounded and taken prisoner early in 1918 and, along with more than 1000 comrades, set off to walk to the frontier from his prison camp in Germany when the armistice was declared.
John William, who served initially with the King’s Royal Rifles, joined the Machine Gun Corps and was awarded the Military Medal. George, despite having on seen active service for a short(ish) period was awarded the two standard medals, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. John senior was discharged in February 1919, apparently with heart trouble, but the more likely cause is that he was unable to keep up with younger and more fit recruits.
His son-in-law, Lt Leslie Townsend, also came home with two medals. Later on, Leslie – who married John’s daughter Grace Constance, ‘Connie’ in 1924 – was to paint a portrait of John as an old man that now hangs in the Long Room at Trent Bridge.
Despite their war service, the brothers didn’t miss out on cricket altogether. There are contemporary reports of Gunner John Gunn as captain of his depot team and showing off his all-rounder skills, scoring a century and taking six wickets in one match; indeed, his depot won two of the three matches played, John was missing for the match they lost!
George’s cricket – prior to his discharge and the move to the leagues – seems to have been at a more elevated level. He tells ‘Jack’ that he had ‘scored a century and retired against a load of officers from Marlborough’.
This comes in one of most poignant items of ephemera connected to the family – a postcard, hand-written in regulation issue pencil, of a smart country house afternoon tea scene, sent by George to his brother, ‘Jack’.
In his note, sent just six days before he embarked for France, George reports that he had been coaching the son of department store owner Moses Wollands at Marridge Hill House, the Wollands’s grand house in Wiltshire, and that he was collected (presumably from barracks) by a Rolls Royce each time the son was due a coaching session – all a very long way from the conditions he was to encounter within less than a week! 
Whilst George, John and John’s family were serving – it seems Connie may have done war work at home – uncle William Gunn, the doyen of the family of cricketers – was keeping the family business, the bat makers Gunn & Moore, running and despite no county cricket, demand for bats was still enough to keep the staff busy.
After the War, the two brothers returned to Trent Bridge and resumed their cricketing careers. John William, who had shown some promise at the game before 1914, did not return to cricket, nor did Cyril, who had always preferred a game of tennis, take up the game.
The ‘Battery’ of Trent Bridge Gunns was, therefore, reduced to John and George, the latter playing First-Class cricket into his fifties – indeed he made a century for Notts of his 50th Birthday.
Brothers in Arms on the pitch and at War, they are fondly remembered by the Trent Bridge faithful.
August 2024
Four days of talks with accompanying exhibition displays in the Library and Museum Room will bring the active part of Trent Bridge and WWI Revisited to a close but the work to collate and conserve the archive will continue.
Copies of The Trent Bridge Battery by Basil Haynes and John Lucas are available in the Wynne-Thomas Library at Trent Bridge, along with other books and reference works on cricket and WWI.
The text of George's postcard reads:
Dear Jack,
Sorry I have not written before but we are so busy I can hardly find time for anything. Have been coaching the son here. Mr Woollands of Knightsbridge. He’s a millionaire. They send a Rolls-Royce in for me every time, a beautiful ground. I made a century and retired against a lot of officers from Marlborough. Have been into Ramsbury tonight to Wollands. It’s about 6 or 7 miles from here. Hope to see you soon. We are taking our last leave 6 days before we depart for France.
Your brother George.
Nottinghamshire CCC are grateful to Andy Mason for the loan of the George Gunn postcard and other WWI items relating to the family.